Official Obscure High-End Japanese Trends You're Not Cool Enough For Megathread

[spacepope]

As someone raised by and around Colorado Hippies, Kapital SS12 has a special place in my heart.

Can anyone speak for their quality?

 

[FlyingMonkey]

Quote:

I had my mind blown this Saturday when this girl I met said " ...when guys wear stuffs like Kiryu-Kiryu..."
I always thought of the pronunciation as some weird "kiryu-y-rik"

It is so adorable when an Asian girl says it

Yeah, it's kind of obscure, but it's written in romaji (western letters) almost as if you are seeing Kiryu in a mirror centred on the 'u'... So, BTW, if you're going to write it with a Capital 'K', it should be 'KiryuyriK', which makes it a bit more obvious... The designers are ex-Yohji aren't they? (god, why do I even know these things? The clothes themselves are so far from my way of dressing... I guess I just pick these things up having lived in Tokyo on and off for so long and knowing the kinds of people I do there).

 

[Auburn]

I have no idea if this fits under the rubric of "Obscure High-End Japanese Trends", but does someone know anything about Ryuichiro Shimazaki? I've seen some interesting things on Rakuten but google has not been too helpful... Thanks!

 

[tween_spirit]

Julian Zigerli

Julian Zigerli was born and raised in Switzerland. At age 20 Julian left for Germany to study fashion design at the University of Art Berlin(UDK). Julian was tutored by Professor Stephan Schneider throughout his studies. After graduating in 2010 he returned to his roots in Switzerland and founded his own label: 'Julian Zigerli'. One of the founding concepts of this label was to focus on constructing garments out of innovative swiss textiles. Julian's first collection ‘Sugar, Spice and everything nice’ A/W 11 was met with great success both nationally and Internationally. This collection was nominated for the Swiss design prize 2011.

Julian Zigerli’s men’s collection stands for useful, smart and technical high- class pieces with a sporty touch. There is always a lot of love, color, humour and positivity involved in his designs.

 

[sipang]

NOT JAPANESE though








Backpacks shirts/jackets remain a risked proposition.

 

[tween_spirit]

My thread my rules!

 

[Fycus]

Has whiz limited of lump clothing already been mentioned? http://www.whiz.jp

Pretty interesting stuff. I liked the song on the homepage, emailed them about it, they said it was a custom song and wouldn't give me a link to the mp3. lulz.

 

[sipang]

Whiz Fall12 was posted a couple posts above actually but I didn't know about the brand before that, there might've been a post sooner in the thread I'm not sure... (You can probably lift the mp3 from the homepage)

My thread my rules![/URL]

Hey I'm just saying...

 

[sipang]

xpost from the Official FW12-13 thread

Yoshio Kubo











​

 

[KingJulien]

I like the Japanese styles don't get me wrong but too many of them are jumping on the WM bandwagon, doing normally shaped clothing with crazy patterns. I actually like the above, but if you made it monochromatic it would be a ****** collection, and that's where a lot of the Japanese designers differ from the European ones.

Also, where can I get a Will Smith t-shirt?

 

[sipang]

I don't think Kubo is biting on WM though, he's been around and doing that kind of stuff since the mid-2000s. I kinda agree that the prints and layering/styling are the main focus rather than the individual pieces themselves (and I guess that's what Uncontrol was talking about in the Official Runway thread sooner ?) but all those labels have closer ties with streetwear than high-fashion and that's pretty much the nature of the beast. Comparing to European designers is not really fair in that regard.

 

[KingJulien]

^ Yeah, that post was poorly worded as I had a few beers when I got home, haha, it was meant as less of a criticism than an observation. I really like that collection you posted, but if you took the patterns away it could basically be any of the made-in-usa brands (minus the tunics, but whatever). There's only a couple of Japanese brands that are on the same level as the European stuff in terms of 'high fashion', and I can't think of any European brands that do streetstyle as well as the Japanese do (though there's probably one or two, I just can't think of one).

This is just me rambling, not an indictment or anything; it's an interesting cultural difference.

 

[tween_spirit]

Well yeah the patterns are a part of it, but on the better examples of this trend there is still a tremendous amount of thought and care that goes into that. Not just the pattern itself but the scale, tonality, when/where/how cutoffs are handled. Not to mention the styling is phenomenal as well. Like anything else it's really hit or miss, but we tend to focus on the hits I guess.

But on a more realistic level, the stuff made by these labels tends to have a level of care and attention to detail that makes the simpler stuff cool on it's own as well. I mean take a WM shirt for example. There is only so much that can be done with one of these, but you've seen on these forums how dramatically different two men's button up shirts can be. There is nothing revolutionary but it's a strange combination of little touches that make it cool. The fabric-coated/colored buttons, the weird short barrel cuffs, the shape of the yoke. In a runway shot you won't notice this because it might be overwhelmed by the styling or other louder patterned pieces (or not shown at all), but there is still an above-average element of design there. The more out-there pieces take this to even further levels and are eye-catching for sure on the runway, but almost inspiring in person. For many of these things all of the fabrics are designed in house, which has proven itself successful (at least in generating interest and lust) for lots of designers, such as SF darling Schneider.

You say without the patterns it could just be any other collection, and that's sort of true but other "real" collections that are shown tend to have a lot of thought in them too, if that's what you're comparing this all to.

It's just a different kind of attention to detail. Going out on a limb here, but think about the energy put into CCP that comes through, or the careful, precise calculation in cut, material and details in something like Balenciaga or new star Tim Coppens compared to something like John Varvatos. He shows full collections but it's largely the same 15 year old look rehashed and typically uninspired, and generally indistinguishable from something at Macy's, both in attention to detail and design.

 

[KingJulien]

Yeah, I agree; I guess I retract my original statement. But I still think that these guys are starting with cool patterns in mind, whereas most of the European designers design everything, and then decide whether or not to do it in color/pattern afterwards for the most part. Some exceptions (Schneider), obviously.

 

[pickpackpockpuck]

sorry man, but you're still talking in generalities that are too broad to be defensible.